Beautiful Illusions presents works in graphic media by two young
Nova Scotian artists. Colosimoís principal practice is drawing; Young favours drawing and indexical techniques, such as casting and monoprinting. For both, materials and process are key determinants of the meaning of their works. Themes of memory, transitory states and trace imagery pervade their art.

The title of the exhibition evokes the realism with which each artist renders subjects such as the façade of a wooden shack, a range of mountain peaks, or the intricate patterning of twisted wires in a chain-link fence. Virtuosic mimicry is not the only point of such images, however; failures such as smudges and anomalies of scale disrupt the illusions and remind viewers of the usually compliant but sometimes faltering hands and memories upon which the illusions depend.